“Do Not Neglect The Gift That Is Within You.” 1 Tim.4:14 (Part I)

Are you a victim of spiritual identity theft? We all know about super heroes from comic books, TV, movies, who have two identities. They have a public identity in which they look and act like the people in their community and they have normal jobs. But, they have a secret identity. They don’t want people to know that they have secret powers and abilities. We know that the secret identity is their true identity. It is hidden, purposed for the times when adversaries come to destroy or disrupt the positive activities of the community or want to hurt or overpower some of the people, if not all of the people because of the desire to control and lack of love for people. The adversaries want to destroy the peace and bring about suffering. They have anger and resentment toward others and want to rise to power and have control over others. Do you know anybody like that? Is it possible that they do not even love themselves or that they are not in touch with their own unique gift and feel diminished by the achievements of others?

“For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed.” John 3:20

Super heroes come to the aid of the community against the evil invader. We know super heroes/sheroes are very powerful, and they always win. Good wins over evil every time! Let me talk about this in a biblical way. We have all heard of Satan, the fallen angel, an originally gifted angel in the kingdom of God. He rebelled against God because he wanted to be greater than God and have the most power. When Satan was put out of heaven, he had a lot of power on earth until Jesus came and took back the power from him. Since the event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, good always wins over evil, even when it doesn’t look like it. Have you ever had something go bad and in the long run it worked out to your benefit? This is the way it has been since Jesus died on the cross and broke the curse that Satan had over our lives. Because of the grace of God, mankind was forgiven of past errors and rebellion against God.

Because of our redemption (Jesus bought us with a price), the “reborn” man is able to have a personal intimate relationship with God and regain power and authority in the world. We can now commune with God and take back our powers, gifts, abilities and purpose that God originally placed in us. Evil had been blocking the way for man to mature into full power and purpose. Now, man has the freedom of choice to reclaim his true identity. Of course, many are not reclaiming it and may not know how. Instead they get their identity from the world, i.e. from those that appear happy, rich, successful or having fun.

Our true identity is in Christ and in the righteousness that he exchanged for our sins. When Christ died and was resurrected, in us the “old man,” the natural man died, and a “new man,” a spiritual man, was born to be a joint heir with Christ. When you are an heir, you have an insurance against spiritual identity theft and an inheritance.

An inheritance is when a relative dies and leaves you something of value to make your life better. We inherited all the promises of God to prosper us, to fill us with true joy and peace and to meet all our needs. God wants us to live a holy life, a life of righteousness and completeness. God want us to be “born again” and accept the new man, which is the Spirit of God, Christ in you. With Christ in us, we don’t need things outside ourselves to make us happy. Jesus paid our debt. In Him, we have victory over the adversary. We can depend on God and we are free to receive the good of the land. (Isaiah 1:19) We are all given a gift and the measure of grace needed for the manifestation of that gift, purposed by God for His glory. (see Eph. 4:7) Stir up the gift and faith will give you the confidence to mature in your gift.

“God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” (Eph. 2:4-5)

By Osundara Mayuri – Author, The Book Of Mayuri: Why We Can’t Have Peace and How We Can Have Peace -Westbow Press, 2010

Copyright c Sept., 2011. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Contact: veranolarue@earthlink.net